Shoe part and the treatment of shoe parts



March 9 1926.

F. ASHWORTH SHOE PART AND THE TREATMENT OF SHOE PARTS Filed March 21, 1919- Patented Mar. 9, 1926.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. f

EBED ASHWORTH, E BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS, AssIGNoE'ro UNITED SHOE MA- CHINERY CORPORATION, JERSEY.

OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW SHOE PART AND THE TREATMENT OF SHOE PARTS.

Application filed March 21,1919. Serial No. 284,058.

provements in Shoe Parts and the Treatment of Shoe Parts, ofwhich the following de scription, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification,-like reference characters on the drawings indicating like parts in the several figures. v

This invention relates to shoe parts and to the treatment of shoe parts. The invention is herein exemplified in its application to wedge-shaped heel lifts for boots'and shoes, frequently termed wedge lifts, and to the treatment of such lifts to facilitate stacking them. It should be understood, however, that in various aspects the invention is not limited to use in connection with wedge: shaped lifts but may be applicable to other boot and shoe parts or other articles having similar characteristics.

In various manufacturing operations involving thehandling of blanks or articles characterized by having opposite, edges, of different thicknesses, of which wedge liftsjare typical, problems have arisen when, for'ex-. ample, it has been desired to stack the lifts or other articles from the magazines automatically for presentation to various. operating instrumentalities. If articles such as wedge-shaped heel lifts are stacked in a magazine with their thin edges pointin all in one direction, the corresponding sur aces of the stacked lifts are not parallel and cons sequently the lifts tend to clog the magazine, rendering subsequent feeding of lifts from the magazine difiicult and uncertain. If such lifts be placed in a magazine with their thick and thin edges arranged alternately in opposite directions, then complex mechanism must be provided to effect the feeding of the lifts from the magazine. I

I have discovered that the difficulties above mentioned may be avoided by providing wedge shaped articles with' projections on their thin edge portions, each projection being of suflicient' height to make the total thickness of an article at a projection substantially equal to the maximum thickness of the article. When'formed in this man ner, the articles may be stacked with their thin edges extending in the same direction for the reason that the said edges will be so spaced relatively to each other that the corresponding surfaces of the articles will be in substantially parallel relation.

Accordingly, in one aspect, the invention provides an improved methodlof treating. wedge lifts or other shoe parts having mar.

ginal portions of different thicknesses which comprises providing the parts with projections on theirrelatively thin edge portions.

and then stacking the parts with the relatively thin edges allpointing inthe same directiomihe projections serving to space the. thin edge portions in such a manner that the stacked parts are in substantial parallelism. Preferably, and as herein exemplified, the

projections are made by deforming the thin edge portions of the articlesand, to prevent the hollow projections thus formed from nesting when the articles are stacked, :the.

projections on; different articles are differ, ently arrangedand the articles are stacked with the projections onsuccessive articles staggered relatively to each other. V

In other aspects theinvention consists in a novel stack of wedge-shaped lifts or similar articles, the thin edge portions of the articles being provided with means forspacing the articles so that they may be stacked with the same facility as articles having parallel faces, and in a novel lift or similar article having such spacing means. Conveniently, the articles are provided at their thin edges with projections or corrugations which may be integral with or attached to the articles.

From another viewpoint the invention resides in an article having an edge portion provided with projections to make the thickness dimension temporarily greater, thevprojections being readily compressible. to permit smoothing of the edge portion when the projections have served their purpose.

Other objects and features'of the invention will be; apparent from the following detailed description and will be. pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view partly ,in' section of an article forming machine; Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic representation of a portion of the material being operated upon with the formed articles left in posi tion in the sheet material, and

Fig. 3 is a view partly in section showing the articles in stacked position.

In the illustrative machine by the aid of which the method of this invention may advantageously be practiced and the novel articles provided by the invention may be produced, means are provided in the form of rotatable members 4: and 6 arranged to en gage on opposite sides of a strip of material 8 for feeding the material to the'forming mechanism. In the construction shown the members and 6 are rolls mounted respectively on shafts 10 and 12 arranged in parallel relation and driven by any well known mechanism from the same source of power. Means are provided for operating upon the material simultaneously with the feeding operation, the said means in the present construction consisting of projections or dies 1st extending from the periphery of one of the rolls in such position as to co-operate with a groove 16 in the periphery of the other roll or feeding member. These forming dies llare shown to be pyrmnidal though obviously rounded, cone-shaped bodies would serve equally well in producing projecting portions in the material as the latter passes between the rolls. While in the present instance the sheet material is acted upon in such a way as to provide projections 18 having rectangular bases, it is within the scope of my invention to act upon the sheet material in such a way as to produce projections or corrugations of other shapes.

In the illustrated machine-the feed rollers feed the strip material 8 intermittently to a dieing out mechanism consisting of a die 20 and a co-operating cutting block 22, though obviously any other form of dieing out mechanism may be substituted for that shown. The strip material 8 may be of leatherboard and is wedge-shaped in cross section and is designed for the production of wedge heel lifts. At each reciprocation of the block 22 relatively to the die 20, a wedge-shaped lift 2st is formed or rather completed by separation from the sheet material 8.

It will be observed from an inspection of Fig. 2 that the projections 18 are regularly spaced on the thin edge portions of the sheet material 8 and that in the completed lifts the projections are variously positioned thereon, this being due to the fact that the dies 14 on the roll 4 are constructed and arranged to form projections 18 on the mate rial8 such that the distance between successive projections 18 is not evenly divisible into the distance between corresponding points along the line of projections in successive blanks cut from the material. That is, the projections on the lifts are formed in such manner that, when lifts are stacked with their thin edges all pointing in the same direction. projections on successive lifts will he in staggered relation. The irregular location of the projections in adjacent articles serves a useful purpose, as will be evident upon inspection of Fig. 23 since, if the illustrated projections were correspondiugly placed in adjacent articles, the projection or projections on one article would lit into the correspondiugly concaved portion of the projection or projections in the subjacent article and there would occur what might be called nesting of the projections, thus permitting the thin edges of the articles to come almost into contact with each other, whereas it is the purpose of the projections to space the thin edges of the articles as indicated in the showing of Fig. 3. Obviously the projections may be formed in the sheet material 8 in a staggered relation to each other instead of in the manner shown. As heretofore indicated, the function of the projections 18 is to space the thin edges of the articles relatively to each other in such manner that the upper surfaces of the articles are in substantially j arallcl relation as shown in Fig. 3, wherein the lifts 24 arc shown stacked in the magazine 26. iVhilc other means could be provided for spacing the thin edges of the articles from each other, difliculty would arise in many cases in disposing of the spacing means at the time of feeding the lifts from the magazine. In the present instance the projections arecollapsible so that they do not interfere with the function of the article .or wedge-shaped body during subsequent operations thereon.

The novel mechanism herein set forth is not claimed since it forms the subject-matter of a co-pending divisional application Serial No. 46,598 filed July 28, 1925.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. That improvement in methods of treat-- ing shoe parts having edge portions of different thicknesses which comprises deforming the relatively thin edge portions of the parts to provide spacing members thereon, and positioning the parts with the thick edge portions of adjacent parts in contact one above another and with the thin edge portions of adjacent parts separated by the spacing members.

2. That improvement in methods of treating wedge-shaped articles which comprises providing the thin edge portion of each article with a projection designed to support the thin edge portion of each article at the level of the thick edge portion, and stack: ing the articles with the thin edges thereof all pointing in the same direction.

3. That improvement in methods oftreats ing wedge heel lifts which comprises provid ing lifts with projections on the thin edge portions thereof differently located in different lifts, and stacking the lifts with the projections in adjacent lifts staggered relatively to each other and with the thin. edges thereof all pointing in the same direction.

11:. A. wedge-shaped lift having collapsible means integral with the thin edge portion thereof for supporting the thin edge portion on a level with the thick edge thereof.

5. A wedge-shaped article having a collapsible projection in the thin edge portion thereof designed to support the thin edge portion of the article so that the upper face thereof is in a plane substantially parallel to the plane of support for the article.

6. A wedge-shaped lift having the thin breast edge portion thereof provided with a projection disposed at a point between the ends of the breast edge.

7. A stack of articles comprising a plu rality of wedge-shaped heel lifts alined vertically with the thin edges thereof pointing all in the same direction, projections on the lifts at points adjacent the thin edges thereof for spacing them with respect to each other so'that the lifts are stacked with their upper surfaces in substantially parallel planes. 1

S. A stack of wedge shaped lifts having hollow projections formed on the thin edge portions of the lifts staggered relatively to each other in adjacent lifts to space the thin edge portion of each lift from the adjacent lifts in the stack.

9. That improvement in methods of treating wedge lifts which comprises providing the lifts with hollow projections differently spaced in different lifts, and placing the lifts in superposed relation with the projections in adjacent lifts staggered or displaced relatively to each other so. that the projections are effective as spacing elements.

10. An article having a thin portion and portion for supporting said portion at substantially the same level as the remainder of the article. 7

11. A wedge lift having the thin edge portion thereof provided with two projections at spaced points in the length of the said thin edge.

'12. A wedge lift having a projection on its thin edge portion of a size such that the greatest thickness dimension of a section taken through the lift at the projection equals the thickness dimension of a section through the thickest part of the lift.

13. A wedge lift having a projection formed on the thin edge portion of the lift to space said lift from another lift in a stack.

14. A shoe part blank having a'body portion of a given thickness, and a thinner, beveled edge portion provided with projections formed thereon to make the blank substan tially as thick at points along the line of the projections as it is at its thickest part.

15. A shoe part blank having a body portion of a given thickness, and a thinner edge portion provided with readily collapsible projections so that the thin edge portion may hesmoothed out in the utilization of the blank.

16. A shoe part blank having a body portion of a given thickness,and a readily compressible edge portion formed by projections in said portion so that the latter will smooth out flat in use, each projection being of a size such that the greatest thickness dimension of a section taken through the blank at the projection is substantially equal to the thickness dimension of a section through the body part of the blank.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

' FRED ASHlVORTI-I. 

